Every quarter the Friends of Broomfield Park hold an open meeting for members of the public, attended by the committee, representatives of Enfield Council and the Parks Police. If you have specific topics for the committee to consider please email the
Secretary

1. Chairman's Welcome

Karen Chang represented the Parks department. Apologies received from James Downing, Trevor Richards and Alex Farris the new Senior Parks Manager.

There were 32 attendees present.

2. Update from the Parks Police

Tom Dodwell represented the Parks Police and as he is retiring he introduced his colleague Karen Netz who will be our new liaison officer.

Tom presented a summary of all reported incidents since 1st Jan 2013:

During the Fun Fair in May there were 2 incidents of theft

Park users reported sexual activity in the male toilets. This is an increasing occurrence

Reports of drug usage in the covered way by the toilets. A usual occurrence

Report of sexual activity in the memorial garden

Report of a rough sleeper. LBE to check and remove.

Comments from the floor included:

Making people aware of the bird feeding notices

DA asked of the correct procedure in reporting problems like drug taking. Calling 101 does not seem to have the appropriate response. In theory calls get logged and passed to an action unit to investigate. Karen Netz stated that if emergency and immediate action needed then 999 should be called otherwise call the number displayed at the Notice Board.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Committee and members, thanked Tom for his support and regular attendance at the Open meetings and presented Tom with a bottle of fine wine.

3. Condition of the Park

a. The Chairman stated that the Parks Department were not doing their bit when problems are reported. We still do not have an efficient and effective 2-way process to report, respond and track problems. ACTION: Karen Chang to arrange for a meeting between NT and James Downing/Alex Farris

c. Flower beds. Lack of bedding plants. Park looks bare. ACTION: Karen Chang to add to the above for discussion at the meeting with NT.

d. DA produces a Condition of Park report quarterly and the top 4 issues are passed to the Parks Department for action. The current issues are:

Slates are loose and dangerous on the Summer House/gazebo behind the House.

The football pitch spectator steps are in need of repair as they are a H&S hazard. Karen reports that LBE technicians are actioning. NB Derek Honnor reports that the state of the pitch is not good enough and it is further damaged by having the Fun Fair there. No maintenance is being carried out. This contradicts the Park Management intentions of promoting sport.

The paths outside the toilet block need resurfacing. A recent incident when a Waste truck decanted its contents there could have contaminated the lake. The incident was reported and addressed but the path needs repairing.

The rats are back.

e. TE suggested that now that the FoBP have achieved the Gold standard as per Partnership Agreement a meeting needs to take place with the park management team to agree operational plan. This should address a lot of the issues above.

f. ED re-stated the issue of inadequate communication between park management and Friends as well as to the gardeners re planting/maintenance.

g. DM suggested we should seek sponsorship for planting from local businesses.

4. Projects

a. Photo competition

This was very successful with over 30 entries. The top 12 were displayed at the conservatory and the public vote produced the following result, with 222 votes counted.

Winner: "Sunset" by Steve Harrison

Runner up: "Swans, Inbound" by Kevin O'Neill

The winner was presented with a bottle of champagne donated by the Conservatory team. Steve accepted the prize and used the opportunity to promote the Southgate Photographic Society's Photo Exhibition on the 9th and 10th August at the Bourne Methodist Church.

The runner up received a bottle of wine donated by the Secretary of the FoBP.

Thanks to Basil Clarke for all the website work and administering the submissions and organising the process, David Abrahams for project management and Liz Macnicol representing all the help from the Conservatory team.

b. Conservatory

ED reported that 4500 visitors came to the conservatory, which is packed with new plants. The popularity of the conservatory is remarkable and all due to the tlc provided by the team throughout the year.

Open Garden fund raising event at Arnos Cottage on the 12th May

Plant swap at the conservatory on Sunday the 26th May

School visits planned

c. Planting/maintenance

The Sensory group lead by June Dawes and Joy Foo meets on Thursdays

The Dipali group led by Mark Shenker meets usually on Sunday after 9am

Anyone interested in helping out should contact Elizabeth in the first instance.

SY reported that Waitrose donated £149 through their customer green token scheme. Thanks to all who helped.

d. Orchard

The Orchard is now a sub-group of the FoBP and so will be organised in a similar way to the Conservatory Group. We are looking for volunteers to be on the Committee and/or to help with the orchard including with publicity, organising events, liaison with schools, working with the bees etc.

We have had a successful year last year with a summer picnic, bee fun day, apple day andwassailing. Our next event will be in early June and will focus on the bees.

We recently received delivery of our second 'nuke' of bees and this is now well established.

We organised the planting of 350 whips (which we got from the Woodland Trust) and some oak saplings from Forty Hallto create a newhedgerow of native plantson the west side of the park. This will provide an important new habitat and alsoto help to enclose the parkfrom the busy road. The trees include hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn, birch, oakand rowan trees. We will be plantingmore trees later in the year, and will need some help to look after them while they get established.

We are developing a new project with the Council for a Community Growing Space between the Orchard and the fencing to the netball courts. We hope to have the area fenced off soon and to startgrowing soft fruit and vegetables later in the year. If you want to be involved in this contact Ivor Evans at broomfieldcommunityorchard (at) gmail.com.

Come along and enjoy the orchard - it's open every Sunday afternoon between 2 and 4pm and on the first and third Saturday mornings of the month from 10 to 12.

IE reports that the Orchard now has two thriving bee colonies: a colony that survived from last year (the "Broomfield" hive) and a new colony obtained three weeks ago (the "Clive" hive). Sadly, as in the case of many colonies around the country, the second colony from last year ("Caversham") did not survive the recent winter. Our colonies are rapidly expanding, and we are regularly monitoring for possible disease (e.g. the Varroa mite), as well as checking for hive space, possible swarming and the need for hive expansion via "supers". We hope to expand our apiary in the coming season, and to collect a decent honey harvest!

New volunteers are very welcome.

e. Palmers Greenery Cafe

Sarah gave an update which is now culminating into a presentation to LBE's evaluation panel on Friday 10th May. This project has the full support of the Friends, whereas none of the other bidders, for use of the disused toilet block, have made any contact with the Friends. A decision is expected by the end of the following week. Then time will need to be allowed by the Council for any appeals/challenge. We are expecting a positive outcome and a 1st cuppa by the autumn, possibly in time for the Palmers Green festival on the 1st September.

f. Love parks week 27th July - 4th August

The Conservatory is planning to be open every day with activities for children - more volunteers required.

Zahir has offered to coordinate the Friends' presence and the planning of any other Friends' activities.

g. Park strategy for projects

As an action from the previous Open meeting LM presented a short document entitled "A Friends' framework for Park improvements". This summarises all the features and amenities in the Park in a schematic. It outlines the process for submitting project proposals in a coordinated way to ensure appropriate consideration is given in prioritising, avoiding conflicts when seeking funding and ensuring maximum support from the parks Dept. A current list of project proposals is included. This "Framework" was approved at the meeting and will be posted on the website for general awareness. It is intended that it will be kept up-to-date as projects are taken on and reviewed annually.

5. Broomfield House

A welcome was extended to Joanne Woodward, Head of Strategic Planning and Design, Regeneration, Leisure and Culture Dept. Jo provided a background for the benefit of attendees, since the failed application to the HLF last year. A further meeting and contact with the HLF has provided more clarity to assist in a follow-up application. Essentially the HLF are more likely to approve a lower bid, preferably up-to £2M (which would be a London HLF decision rather than risk competing at the national level), and a "partnership" of funders rather than just LBE. Jo confirmed that part of the next steps will be the appointment of a fund raiser so that a proper discovery process for potential fund raisers can be undertaken. This was to be a Round 2 task, but the HLF statements are precipitating this in order to tackle the risk as perceived by the HLF.

DM asked Jo to arrange for immediate action to clear the gutters in the stable block warehouse to avoid any health and safety issues.

6 Questions and Answers

Has the Palmers Green Festival Committee awarded any funds to the Friends for the Park? A- a project to create a children's (Ladybird) maze is being planned.

The PG Festival are keen for the Friends to take a more active part in the next event 1st Sept.

Maria announced the NLNL's intention to run a netball competition during the next PG Festival on the 1st Sept. Maria suggested that this is advertised as part of the Friends activities.

During Love Parks week James Downing is planning to offer free bowling (and possibly croquet) activities to promote public use of the Bowling Club. At the moment we have not been advised of the results of the feasibility study commissioned by LBE.

7 Any other business

Next Open meeting 9th October 2013

Grovelands Park will be celebrating their 100 years on the 18th and 19th May 2013.